The Whole StoryCD

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

The 10 years or so of silence since her last recorded works haven't helped, but it has to be said that Kate Bush's contribution to songwriting history and musical innovation since she burst onto the pop scene as a teenager in 1978 has been rather overlooked of late. I would urge anybody who likes their songwriting catchy and emotional but also intelligent and quirky, and their music intriguing and eclectic, to try this compilation, featuring most of the famous singles and a few minor ones from all but the last 2 albums of Kate Bush's career. Although not *quite* the whole story, this is an impressive journey over a huge range of musical ground showing a level of developing maturity and sophistication rarely heard since.The ordering of tracks - neither chronological nor thematic - appears rather random at first, especially to those who might know the repertoire well, but holds together remarkably well. The early classics "Wuthering Heights" (here given a subtle re-working) and "The Man with the Child in his Eyes" show Kate as the wistful, impassioned teenager; "Wow" and "Babooshka" demonstrate growing vocal strength and a developing knack for telling stories in song; "Army Dreamers" and "Breathing" give a chilling reminder of the tense global situation in the depths of the Cold War and remain, years on, as outstanding protest songs in the grand tradition. With "Sat in your Lap" and "The Dreaming" a more experimental phase is reached, with at-the-time ground-breaking electronica, drum machines, sampling, and even the musical talents of Rolf Harris called in to complement the unerringly catchy, stirring melodies and bizarre lyrics.Read more ›

This is an enjoyable run through some of Kate's best moments, and if you are new to Kate Bush then it's a good place to start. The only drawback is that in almost every case the songs sound better as a part of the albums they came from, so if you know you like Kate Bush, skip this and go straight to the original albums as you'll end up buying them all in the end.

Kate Bush wasn't just one of the most original songwriters of the 1970sand 80s. She was also a pioneer in the use of video as a medium fortelling the stories behind the songs. This video collection, to accompanythe compilation album of the same name, suffers (as the compilation does)from not actually being the whole story, but apart from that it's afaultless portrayal of one songwriter's growing confidence in herself, inher music, in her ability as a storyteller, and in her power to commandand captivate an audience visually as well as emotionally.I have to take issue with some of the reviewers here who deride the earlyvideo material. Yes, most of it consists of Kate in swirly whitenightdresses doing what at times looks reminiscent of "liturgical dance".So what? Remember when these films were first made: the promotional videowas a rarity in the late 70s (half of the material on this video predatesMTV), musicians were only just beginning to grasp the possibilitiesafforded by the medium, and let's face it, most of the videos produced by*anyone* in that early era look even more dated now, and are executed witha lot less grace. By the "Never for Ever" era, Kate had moved away fromdance interpretations and was beginning to use video as a storytellingmedium, as can be seen in the classic films for "Babooshka" and thechilling "Breathing". "Sat in your Lap", released in 1981, was one of thefirst videos ever to use computer graphics; true, it looks dated now, butremember this was the era when the ZX81 was the cutting edge of computertechnology, so to achieve something so spectacular and - well, downrightbizarre - at that time was absolutely ground-breaking.By the time the "Hounds of Love" era arrived, Kate was a video artistwithout compare.Read more ›

The Whole Story (1986) is a pretty standard and obvious collation of KB's singles releases between 1978 and 1986. It introduces the as yet uninitiated to 12 of her most popular songs, although perhaps the vastly overproduced 'new vocal' for Wuthering Heights was not the brightest of ideas.The compulsory 'new' single (released for the compilation only), Experiment IV, is actually a fairly good track (a direct descendent from the Hounds Of Love album), but nothing to get overly excited about. The inclusion of The Dreaming (which only just made the Top 50) was perhaps another oversight, and could have been replaced with a classic 'non-single' song from Kate's expansive body of work, such as the excellent Them Heavy People, Suspended in Gaffa or Infant Kiss etc. Moreover, twelve tracks covering five albums is a tad tight-fisted considering the vast resevoir of work at the compiler's disposal.However, with the likes of Babooshka, Breathing, Running Up That Hill, Army Dreamers and Wow all present and correct, The Whole Story is certainly enough to keep most punters thoroughly happy and will undoubtedly push many of them to investigate KB's unique talent a little deeper. Even by listening to this somewhat limited singles collection, you can still begin to explore a vast array of moods and textures, each of which is a small work of art in itself.Die-hard fans willingly forked out over £90.00 for the This Woman's Work box-set compilation a few years later, so in comparison, The Whole Story is still quite good value for the non-completist. And no, I bought all the albums instead... it was actually cheaper !